Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Emmy The Great's music is frequently classified as anti-folk. Well to me, anti-folk would be hard core punk. I suppose the anti-folk classification is too subtle for someone born in 1956. Anyway, I think Emmy The Great is on to something, whatever it is called.

You know, I think there is a political dimension to the taxonomy of musical genres. But that is a subject for another post.

By the time a health care reform bill finally makes it to President Obama's desk in October, I'm going to need a therapist. I'm feeling uneasy. I have no confidence in the Democratic Party to accomplish anything. The fact that all interested parties have basically given up on the possibility of a single payer system is enough to make the process seem like another round of special interest roulette where the American people get screwed, Congress gets their campaigns financed and a handful of multinational corporations get all of our money and most of the rest of us die poor and in excruciating pain.

The status quo, which health care corporations are dumping tons of money into saving, is not just ineffective in that so many of us are uninsured, but it is also generates a great deal of fraud, unfairness and immorality. Swimming Freestyle blogger Jay McDonough writes, "A recent investigation by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations found, in the last five years, WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. canceled coverage for more than 20,000 people to avoid paying more than $300M in claims." We don't just need reform, we need the cops.

Even one of the beneficiaries of the stupefying wealth of the industry, former vice president for corporate communications at health insurance giant Cigna, Wendell Potter, motivated by his disgust at the wealth he, his company and his industry gained at the expense of his fellow Americans' health, gave devastating testimony (video) about the industry's behavior before the Senate Commerce Committee.

Here's a bit of Potter's testimony (h/t Jamie Court):

I know from personal experience that members of Congress and the public have good reason to question the honesty and trustworthiness of the insurance industry. Insurers make promises they have no intention of keeping, they flout regulations designed to protect consumers, and they make it nearly impossible to understand -- or even to obtain -- information we need. As you hold hearings and discuss legislative proposals over the coming weeks, I encourage you to look very closely at the role for-profit insurance companies play in making our health care system both the most expensive and one of the most dysfunctional in the world.

Despite the obvious fact that this country is crying out for coverage, too many of our legislators are trying as hard as they can to ignore the writing on the wall. The lengths to which some of our representatives are willing to go in order to preserve this unnecessary middle-man, this corporate interloper standing between us and our doctors smack of desperation.

One of the most transparent ruses being floated by members of Congress who are in bed with the health care industry is the "trigger," meaning that if the insurance industry doesn't cut costs by some preordained amount after a certain number of years, a public option will go into effect. This is simply a way for the insurance companies to buy time in hopes of getting a more friendly political playing field between now and the time the trigger goes into place, which is likely to be never because the language will be so vaguely written that the companies will be able to sue their way out of complying anyway.

In what must be a brilliant strategy by Barack Obama, John Kerry--who, as we recall from many prior misadventures, has the reverse Midas touch--is now proposing legislation that would trigger a public option in.... get this... ten years! Clearly Obama is making Kerry the face man for the trigger option so that it will die the sad, fiery death of the Kerry/Edwards campaign.

Between now and October there's a very good chance that the Democrats will have managed to seat Al Franken in the Senate. That's important because there's growing consensus that with 60 Senators the White House will be able to craft the best possible reform package in conference after the House and the Senate pass some version of a reform bill.

Even so, for the reasons stated above, waiting until the last minute to watch the White House and progressives in Congress try to pull out the big win gives reform advocates the willies. And my health care provider does not cover the willies. Well, my health care provider doesn't exist, but if it did exist, I highly doubt it would cover the willies or even a case of full blown heebie jeebies.

The founders' religious beliefs have become a huge matter for debate between religious conservatives and secular progressives. In some ways this battle over the favor of these dead men is one way to keep the struggle between theocratic and secular forces going, no matter what the history actually says.

The Station Agent posted Jenny Lewis singing in an elevator, and now Nels has turned me on to more of this "genre". It looks like the same elevator, too. Station Agent, what is up with this? Why do recording artists want to perform in the same elevator?

Nice to see that Michael Jackson willed the Beatles' songs he outbid Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono for in 1985 to McCartney. Word is he felt bad about losing Paul as a friend. Guess he wasn't too worried about Yoko.

Here's a look at the ill-fated collaboration that went down between Michael and Paul lo those many years ago. This is "Say, Say, Say."

I'm beginning to think that I dreamed the entire 2008 election. Panicky Democratic Senators are bowing down before their Republican counterparts like it's fucking 2002. Every time I turn on Sunday television I see Newt Gingrich. What part of the word mandate do people in DC not understand? Bush won the 2004 election (I'm playing along) by 2.4% of the popular vote and the first words out of his mouth were, "Suck it bitches, MANDATE!" Obama kicked McCain's ass and every time he opens his mouth some scumbag from the last administration gets up, acts like he or she has a shred of credibility, then trashes whatever change Obama proposed. Instead of laughing their asses off, the media hires these people and listens to them. If the Roman Empire had Fox News they wouldn't have needed Huns.

Even the Washington Post is Republican Party-lining it like it's the eve of Shock and Awe. On Thursday, they fired Dan Froomkin. One day later, who do they hire? Droolie McCombsucker--Paul Wolfowitz. How the fuck is this possible? This jackass was one of the architects of the Iraq War. How did that work out? How does that line pop on a resume? And does anyone recall Wolfowitz being forced out of his deliciously evil job at the World Bank in the ugliest manner possible? Christ, Washington Post, why didn't you just hire Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales too and be done with it?

Sunday, June 21, 2009

There are a few great anti-war protest songs that came out in the 90s. Rage Against the Machine, for instance, recorded all of its music during the Clinton administration. This song, "Mouth for War" by Pantera was on their 1992 album Vulgar Display of Power. The fact that these songs were so earnest and heavy at a time in our history that was the most peaceful puzzles me. Where were these guys during the Bush administration? While there were a few musicians making brilliant anti-war statements, the last throes of corporate rock kept real subversion far out of the mainstream.

Absolutely fantastic Democracy Now! on Thursday was dedicated almost entirely to the life and times of American journalist I.F. Stone. Stone considered himself a Jeffersonian-Marxist. I find that digable.

During a short break in the program, they played Duke Ellington's "Reminiscing in Tempo".

Friday, June 19, 2009

According to Walter Cronkite's spokesperson, he's recuperating from a recent sickness and not as gravely ill as some media outlets have reported. That's good news. People don't have to pass on in order for the rest of us to celebrate how awesome they were.

In this brief clip from 1963, Cronkite sat down with President Kennedy to discuss the only hot war the U.S. was engaged in, somewhere called Vietnam.

This post is intended for Gainesville Florida Church of All Worlds Reverend Dr. Luke Moonoak, who gave me the idea to check out Liz Phair. Where had she been all my life? So to return the favor, I'm posting this sample for the Reverend Dr.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

In this clip, Al Jazeera's Hamish MacDonald reports that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, may be in a power struggle with former president Hashimi Rafsanjani. Wait, MacDonald? Really?

The Times Onlinereports that Khamenei has told Mousavi to stand beside him for Friday prayers at Tehran University while he calls for national unity.Watergate Summer has a haunting clip from YouTube of Iranians chanting "Allahu Akbar" through the night and the story behind it.

Salontries to untangle all the influential players in Iran's elite circle of religious authorities.

This is another of my comments on PETA, with which I have a love-hate relationship. I am a vegetarian activist, so I share some of PETA's goals. But I am often irritated by their methods. And they are very high-horsish, objecting to the President swatting a fly.

"But now People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calling it an 'execution,' wants the commander-in-chief to show a little more compassion to even 'the least sympathetic animals.'"

On Wednesday, Tom Daschle, the man who President Obama initially selected to be his nominee for HHS secretary, said:

While I feel very strongly that consumers should have the choice of a national, Medicare-like plan, my colleagues do not. . . But we were concerned that the ongoing health reform debate is beginning to show signs of fracture on the public plan issue, so in order to advance the process of developing bipartisan legislation and to move it forward, it's time to find consensus here. We've come too far and gained too much momentum for our efforts to fail over disagreements on one single issue.

First of all, Mr. Daschle, you don't feel "very strongly" about it if you're willing to drop it now. Not getting a public option now is unacceptable. Sure, a lot of conservative Democrats are saying they will vote against a public option, the truth is, when it's all laid out on the line and the grass roots health care movement has time to focus on the few Senators standing between us and our goal, you have your votes.

I really hope the White House understands that this issue is not something the people are flexible about. Health care is a right. If we are not covered, very many of us will not be in a hurry to move forward to the next item on any agenda. The fact that single-payer is not steamrolling toward passage is sick and unacceptable. The public option is a half-measure to begin with. Do not take that away.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Last week the blog Pasta Primavera suggested that we listen to Virginia band Tereu Tereu. Well it took me a week, but I finally did it. And you know what? Not bad, especially for a bunch of youngins. These boys are going to be dangerous real soon.

"'Here, There and Everywhere' is a song written primarily by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon/McCartney), recorded for the Beatles 1966 album Revolver. In his biography Many Years From Now, McCartney said the song is one of his favorites. Beatles' producer George Martin has also mentioned it as one of his favorite McCartney songs. John Lennon reportedly told McCartney it was 'the best tune on the album' and said in his 1972 Rolling Stone interview it was "one of my favorite Beatles tracks.'"

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Losing Shannon Hoon at the peak of his creativity forever changed the course of American music. Luckily, a couple grainy tapes of the band practicing have found their way to YouTube. Just to make me sad all over.

There was much bitterness among Americans toward Japan in the first two decades after WW II. But "Sukiyaki", the first and only Japanese language song to chart in the US, put a human face on the Japanese people. I remember my father, a naval veteran of the Pacific theater, sitting thoughtfully with his cigarette--which eventually killed him--and listening to Sukiyaki.

It is pure comfort music for a generation that saw much violence and sorrow, and their children.

I do not believe that "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" appeared on any of the Beatles' British LPs, which I have used to count down their recorded material from 1962 to 1970--so here it is. It's a fine cover vocal by Lennon, and a staple of their live performances. Lennon liked it so much that he performed it at his Live Peace In Toronto concert in 1969, which I played constantly in my teen years. It's not that great of a song, but it is a good example of the so-called "energy" the punk people say was missing from rock in the 1970s. Whatever.

If you don't understand the lyrics, that's because you were never a male hetero teenager. In those years, a hetero dude wants a girl that make him dizzy--that's the rule.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

On the Beatles' album Rubber Soul Harrison introduced the West to the sitar in "Norwegian Wood", but the Beatles' Revolver's "Love You To" is a much more serious piece of sitar music. That Harrison never became a virtuoso sitarist is an unimportant detail. He must get his credit for some of the most important innovations in music of the 20th century.

Here's the extra song Pearl Jam threw down last Monday when they were the first musical guests on Conan O' Brien's version of the Tonight Show. The song that made it on the show was a new one that will be on PJ's new album. The sound was so awful, due mostly to the preponderance of floor toms in the arrangement, that it was hard to tell if the song was good or not--though I'm thinking, based on the way the band threw themselves into the song, it kicked butt.

Off camera, they followed it up with this glorious rendition of Neil Young's "Keep On Rockin' in the Free World," which had much better sound.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

On her livejournalKimya Dawson tells a very sweet story about an encounter she recently had with a homeless man while performing in Barcelona. She winds up singing Whitney Houston's "The Greatest Love of All" to the man and then kissing him on the cheeks.

The kisses are off screen in this clip of the performance, but I love the way she turns this earnest 80s pop sermon into an ironic, yet sincere a Capella anthem for the anti-folk crowd.

"Beijing has never allowed an independent investigation into the military's crushing of the protests, in which possibly thousands of students, activists and ordinary citizens were killed. Young Chinese know little about the events, having grown up in a generation that has largely eschewed politics in favor of raw nationalism, wealth acquisition and individual pursuits."

The Chinese government will not discuss the suppression of information on the Tiananmen tragedy, or even acknowledge that there is any suppression, which is highly ironic because any attempt to bring it into the open is suppressed! As for the youth of China, they remind me of Young Republicans...but without any civil liberties except the liberty to make money!

I love podcasts so much. Beyond their ability to provide convenient recordings of radio shows, they also give voice to literally anyone. One of the more fun podcasts I listen to regularly is Smodcast, which is a running conversation between filmmakers Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier. The show is beloved by fans of their movies (which I like just fine) and occasionally the fans will take the medium into their own hands and create something altogether new.